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Easy Mode Lockdown, Surveys & More 3/27/12

As someone tweeted earlier in the day guests that were trying to level up or had been playing on Medium or Hard have all been bumped back down to Easy until further notice.

Throughout my day of playing and trading I spoke with many guests, both locals, CM’s, and no one was really sure what was going on. After I was done for the day I stopped by the distribution area behind the Christmas Shop and found a CM who was more than willing to talk to me. Now of course take this with a grain of salt, lot’s of CM’s like to blow smoke its their nature, they’re good people, however they like to stir the pot, and trust me as a blogger I love it when they do : )

I asked him flat out, is the easy mode lockdown true? His response 100% yes, he went on to tell me that Ops had be conducting time studies to see how long players on Medium/Hard spend at portals, and what their success rate is on beating villains on the first try. He told me the reason this was started is because there have been a huge amount of complaints from guests about how long they have to wait at portals, and how come other players get to cast numerous spells against one villain and their experience isn’t an depth as a more advanced player. He also went on to say “Well it’s just AP’s & CM’s playing anyways, so they think it’s taking away from the day guest. Since we’re the ones taking all the time to play.” Well here’s my response to that comment, if all we want to do is play SOTMK during our time at the park that is our choice. So as of now, it’s locked on easy. Hopefully not for long, as far as I am concerned if I am forced to play on the easy level that will deter my game play and maybe that is what they want…

While playing in Fantasyland today, I was approached by a CM doing research surveys, I gladly obliged her and took it. Most of the questions involved my thoughts on gameplay, pros, cons, waits at portals, animation, storyline, etc… Then came the merchandising question…. One question asked me I was willing to purchase the following :

Posters

T Shirts

Spell Books (Binders)

Card Protectors

As suspected Disney has become wise to the amount of people carrying around things they are getting from outside sources to protect their cards. It’s only a matter of time until this all comes to the Emporium.

The last bit of info I’ll share for the day is probably the most ridiculous rumor I’ve heard thus far. This came from CM who told me they work in merch specifically at MK. He apparently was told the price point for the “booster packs” he said that starting next month “booster packs” will be available at the Emporium for $3 per pack. Yes that’s right $3! I hope that’s true but I highly doubt it. If that’s the case cards 61-70 will be worth nothing on eBay and the resale market for them will die.

I’ll close with this little tidbit, a longtime CM whom I trust and am very close with told me this last night in regards to cards 61-70. “At first we were really upset to see those cards being resold at such ridiculous prices, however we realized it was our own fault pulling those out of play in the first place thus making them such a hot commodity. We caused that problem ourselves.”

So maybe the “booster packs” will be pretty cheap, if not than very affordable.

6 thoughts on “Easy Mode Lockdown, Surveys & More 3/27/12”

Wow, locked on easy? Really? That is so wrong. I’ve been working on maxing out my cards, it will take forever if I’m stuck on easy and can only cast once at the portals. I wasn’t there yesterday, but Monday the harder levels were available.

Yeah. Personally this is very disappointing. I realize capacity has become a problem, but to be honest its really only an issue in Fantasyland that in part to how close the portals are to one another. Right behind the castle you have 3 portals right in a row, and 2 virtually right across from those. In addition to that its already an extremely high traffic area due to the amount of guests that want to walk through the castle.

Just finished my first time on hard today. I asked the Liberty Square cast member a few questions. 1. When I picked up my cards in the morning one cast member said medium and hard were down for maintainence and should be back next week, but he said it will be down for a few weeks at least. 2. He said that the rumors on the internet about a Jack Sparrow and Peter Pan and more new cards coming out soon is false. That he knows because he works the attraction and its false. 3. As far as 61-70 he said something along the lines of “Whenever merch feels like they can make a profit off of selling them.”

I have also heard from a manager that the hard/medium levels are down for a refurb as well. Although the new run of cards “71-140” is a rumor I have to believe its going to eventually come to fruition. Considering how insanely popular this game has become among locals, CM’s & day guests it would in Disney’s best interest to capitalize on this financially as much as possible.